City, county present plan to address homelessness in New Hanover County

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — At an agenda briefing on Monday, Wilmington City Council discussed a strategic plan between the city and New Hanover County to support the area’s homeless population. 

Chief Strategy Officer Jennifer Rigby and House & Neighborhood Services Director Rachel LaCoe presented their path forward for the joint initiative. 

During the presentation, Councilwoman Salette Andrews noted that one of the challenges with the plan is understanding why some homeless individuals aren’t seeking out local services. 

“I wanted to make sure that the people who aren’t taking advantages of the services that we find out why that is,” Andrews said. “Is there a different kind of service that we need to be providing to make sure that we get our unsheltered population into shelter if that’s what they want.” 

Mayor Bill Saffo raised the question of whether enough is being done to address the behavioral health of the area’s homeless population. 

“One of the things that I continue to hear from our police department that rolls up when there’s an incident or a situation is the behavioral needs, which are tremendous,” Saffo said. 

Saffo also noted that the number of beds for behavioral health treatment in the area is greatly lacking, calling on healthcare provider Trillium to do more. 

“To have the limited amount of beds that we have for behavioral health, not only for Wilmington and New Hanover County, but for this region, I think is appalling,” Saffo expressed. “And I just think we need to have a much more robust conversation with Trillium about why they’re not putting more beds in this community.” 

Similar sentiments were echoed by Andrews, who added that addressing the behavioral health of homeless populations is a nationwide problem. 

“That’s really a nationwide problem, but we’re really feeling it here because of the growth in Wilmington,” Andrews said. “But it’s really a nationwide problem, we need to put more emphasis on mental and behavioral health.” 

Council will reconvene to discuss the strategic plan at their meeting on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.